Need Help with Something That Should Be So Easy! A Connection Problem Is Driving Me Crazy!

Alright I will make a long story short! I have another laptop a Lenovo Ideapad Z series...It's about 3 years old but was working very well!

After a hack I changed my administrator password, password protected my guest account and changed password in BIOS!! Couldn't remember any of the passwords and have been working on this since June 1st! Finally in desperate situation I took pc to Geek squad where I was told by "agent
goober" (not real name)but referred to himself as "agent" LOL) That the computer was never going to be operable again unless i sent off to have CMOS battery which is on motherboard to be removed!!

But finally after tackling the problem myself I was able to remove all passwords! Now, the problem, i cannot get pc to connect to my FIOS router....The computer has gone back to dial up connection!! It has no Lan settings....and i have tried everything!! System Restore didn't work and neither does system repair! I have a generated report for diagnostic logging but have no idea how to read it....I will happily share privately with someone if they are familiar!

Can anyone help with this or have any ideas? Thank you so much.

Pax

a reply to: paxnatus

reinstall your Ethernet card drivers, or buy a new PCI ethernet card.

a reply to: okamitengu

Oh thank you!! I will try that now and let you know!

a reply to: paxnatus

Find a tall building and launch it!

what version of windows are you running and what is the exact model of the laptop? if i remember right the Z series has a few entries in it.
Have you tried connecting it to the modem and not the router?
when you say there is no lan settings, could be the drivers are missing?
supposing you have windows 7, click start, then RUN and type this in: devmgmt.msc
the device manager will open up and you can see all your hardware, look for "network adapters" and see if the related icon has for example a yellow sign next to it.
what about wifi? any joy on that side?

originally posted by: okamitengu
a reply to: paxnatus

reinstall your Ethernet card drivers, or buy a new PCI ethernet card.

Yeah, do what he says, if Ethernet card is still intact get the exact model and search on official Lenovo site and reinstalling the driver will solve the problem for you.

Search

a reply to: paxnatus

Yes, like the member above me said. Next step is to verify your network card is working. Lan or wifi. Make sure that is working and has correct drivers. Remember to check that it's not set to "disabled" and sometimes some laptops will have a manual switch somewhere that has to be switched on for it to work. Usually with a small LED that comes on or something.

Check your bios to see if it's enabled there. Sometimes it will have an option for it there under "integrated devices" or something.

Oh and make sure if it's lan that the cord is connected.

But it's probably wifi.

did you check too see if LAN somehow got disabled in the BIOS settings ?

a reply to: okamitengu

okay updated drivers and it didn't help....Is the pci ethernet card my wireless card so to speak on the laptop? Because my wireless symbol is missing from the connection attempt as well.

thanks,

pax

a reply to: paxnatus

thats a bad sign. in device manager can you see the ethernet device?

its a laptop yeh? you might need ot invest in a $5 usb to ethernet adapter if you cant get the onboard running again

originally posted by: paxnatus
a reply to: okamitengu

okay updated drivers and it didn't help....Is the pci ethernet card my wireless card so to speak on the laptop? Because my wireless symbol is missing from the connection attempt as well.

thanks,

pax

Okay, back to basics:

Lets check your settings:
1. Open a dos command box.
2. Enter the following command: ipconfig /all
3. Scroll through that data to your wlan/ethernet.
4. Look at the IP-adress. Is ist something like "169.254.123.123"? Starting with 169.254.? -> Yepp, there is no valid IP-adress used by your card.
5. Give us more of that data (like: is a dns-server-adress included? do you use your router as a dhcp-server or some other device to give out ip-adresses).
6. If you want, try another command: ping www.google.com
7. There should be some lines like "xyz ms". If not, report, please.

a reply to: paxnatus

Did you check the bios yet to see if it's enabled???

Also, is there a manual switch on the case somewhere that needs to be switched on???

It should still be listed under device manager as well. You should have one for each network interface. So one for wifi and one for ethernet (cable).

since you removed the battery (you have put it back i hope) it may of disabled the wifi/network in the BIOS, don't know that model of machine but quite often its possible to enable/disable networking and at that point the operating system won't have any idea the hardware even exists

Now there should be a restore partition which will return the machine to its minty fresh factory setting, but before messing with that backup..yes backup...and i do mean it..backup all your data you want to keep as it'll all be gone

this seems to be the basic guide to popping it back to default
support.lenovo.com...

and did i mention about backups before messing any more its like guns...you can never have enough of them

You're sure when you took out the battery that whatever you removed you connected back correctly???

Some of those tiny ribbon cables can be small and if you don't click those little locks in place it might not make connection.

a reply to: AttitudeProblem

No but I will, thank you!

Pax

Oh i'm sorry for the miscommunication, I didn't remove the battery myself I was able to bypass the BIOS but boot from boot logging options and bought a password key unlocker to unlock windows and booted from disc......i don't think I turned off land settings but gonna run the steps that y'all have recommended...I do have an ethernet cord that i can try...just to check if it is the wireless component in the laptop.....guess i will work my way through the list and let you know.....Thanks again everyone its 3 am here....so i need to call it a night....

Pax

a reply to: mOjOm

okay gonna check in device manager for that now

thank you

usb wireless adapter.....boom.

a reply to: ratsinacage

** yes usb wireless might bypass your problems. but why bang your head on a 3 year old brick anyway ? new win 10 models are really good value and fast. look at the HP range.

a reply to: MasterKaman

Why spend more money? whats probably needed is like a car it needs to see a pro who can take a look and give proper advice as theres multiple reasons why it's not working and all we're doing is throwing possible answers at the problem